We went to Puerto Rico in Feb a few years ago. It was amazing. We stayed in a VRBO condo so we could eat in or out (huge money saver) and we packed lightly and could do laundry in the condo. Weather was beautiful, 80's, no humidity. Oh, and you don't have to have passports to go. (edited for spelling)

A house that I've drooled over in my neighborhood is for sale right now. Wooded lot, walkout basement (hard to come by basements around here), lots of big, beautiful windows. They just lowered the price by over 10 grand!!! It will probably sell now. We are actually hoping to list our house sometime in the next few months so... maybe... I breath a sigh of relief everytime I drive by and the sign is still up.

Wow, you sound just like me! I was 27 weeks yesterday. I failed my 1hour glucose with a 142 (so just barely). I also had sugar in my urine. I immediately started eating like a diabetic should. No sugar and only whole grains. No white rice, white breads, etc. Lots of veggies, meat, nuts and only a small piece of fruit 3 times a day. I really think (although I have no proof) that helped me pass my 3 hr test. So now I have added some sugar back in (I can't help it! I have such a sweet tooth!) but I scaled way back and am going for things like frozen yogurt, whole wheat oatmeal raisin cookies, whole wheat pancakes with blueberries and no syrup. Apples with peanut butter or peanut butter banana sandwich (whole grain bread, of course) to satisfy a sweet craving. I think Dr's try to control the gd with diet and exercise if possible but if its really bad, they may put you on medication. I hope you pass your 3 hr! GL!

Yes, the grandkids come to expect certain foods when they visit grandparents but it doesn't mean you have to cook. My dd was introduced to individual tapioca pudding cups at my dad's house since it was bout the most kid-friendly food he had and now she and her brother look forward to tapioca every visit. Once, he didn't have any and she was heartbroken. "You knew we were coming!" (said in a crushed kind of manner, not bratty.) My dad felt terrible!!! They get drumsticks (the ice cream cone) at the other grandparents and once, grandma and grandpa thought they'd mix it up and serve ice cream sandwiches. All the grandkids revolted, not just my kids!! It was quite a sight!!! As for the original topic of this thread, my fil is the main cook at his house too. He cans in the summer and experiements with new recipes of his own making and he tries to replicate dishes he's had at restaurants and enjoyed. Its funny because I never thought that when I got married, I'd bond with my fil over cooking and baking and have more to talk about with him than my mil!!! Btw, my grandmother agrees with op's dh, that a spiral sliced ham isn't as good quality-wise as a regular bone-in half ham. She also says to go for the butt portion rather than the shank because there is more meat.

My ocd kicks in and I wouldn't eat the leftovers after everyone's been breathing on the food and who knows what else with poorly supervised kids in the mix. I always offer my leftovers to the host or person in charge. On the flip side, if I'm in charge, I send everyone's food back with them because "I don't have room in my fridge." Which is true but not my real reason. I can almost see the bacteria mutating on the food!! Potlucks are not high on my list, can you tell?

This was interesting. I scored 35. I thought I'd be closer to 50. I think I might have been had I done this test in the summer, as pp mentioned. My introvert tendencies creep up more in the winter. I like to hibernate when its cold and gray out.

We live in a town of 15,000 but its very isolated. 30-45 min drive to next closest town. Pros: librarians, dry cleaners, bank tellers, handful of Walmart and Walgreen's cashiers all know us by name. I don't have to write down my comp prices anymore, they just key them in for me. A neighbor removes the snow off our driveway in minutes with his bobcat and refuses to take anything for it. So dh gives him a small discount on work he sends our way (construction field). If we're in a hurry and leave the door unlocked, I don't worry. We are surrounded by several beautiful state parks and spend much more time outdoors and in nature than I did as a kid in a big city. We don't spend as much money on things we don't really need because there's no big shopping centers here. Con's: we have to drive a distance to go to anything cultural. Museums, imax, theatre. I wish we could just hop in the car and go but its a big ordeal to plan ahead of time and pack snacks and things for the kids to do in the car. It would be nice to have more than one restaurant to go to for more upscale dining. We go to the same place every year for our anniversary. When you get pulled over a block from home at 8:30 in the morning, your sil, bil, best friend, and hairdresser all drive by and see your shame on their way to work and honk repeatedly!

Actually, it seems like we are referencing 2 different things. What I'm getting is the free preorder for the month that is 1.99 or something like that for non prime members. I haven't looked into the lending.

I didn't do anything special. Just opened my kindle app, tapped "shop" then the "kindle first" tab and the 4 December selections were there labeled "buy now for free with your prime membership". Sorry I can't be of more help.

I have the kindle app on my android tablet and am currently reading my free book for December. Works for me!

Congrats!! Great names!

When I watch Seinfeld I want a big bowl of ceral with super cold milk. Sometimes if I'm really excited to watch a movie, I need Cool Ranch Doritos to complete my happiness. Any movie that takes place in the cold/snow requires hot chocolate with marshmallows. (Dr. Zhivago or any mountain climber rescue movie for example.)

We are soon to be a family of 5 in 840 sq ft. I don't know if its made us closer or not, since its all we've lived in our entire marriage (well we did rent for a few months in the very begining.) Things I like about it: low payment, taxes, utilities. (we spend more on groceries than the mortgage.) Easy and quick to clean. It prevents us from accumultating too many toys, clothes, etc. It does encourage us to get outside as much as possible. Things i don't like: it does feel cramped at times and makes me a little nutty. Its very difficult to entertain because we don't have anywhere to put ppl. Also difficult to have family as overnight guests for the same reason. I have to think over every furniture purchase carefully, find something that serves 2 functions and put things in un-traditional places. (office desk in the laundry room and homeschool bookshelves in the kitchen RIGHT next to the stove, for example.) We are going to list our house for sale in the spring. If it doesn't sell, we'll start saving for an addition. Blerg. I hope it sells. I'd like to find 1500 sq ft with an unfinished basement. But now I'm really dreaming.

I wouldn't. But my opinion is based on experience. There were 6 people in the house and everyone had the trots for a few days. Turns out the mayo we opened from the pantry was a month old. The only person that wasn't ill was the one that uses mustard on their sandwiches. We tossed it and within 48 hrs or so everyone was cleared up.

According to my New Best Recipe Cookbook, its the dairy that makes a red sauce bolognese. Milk or heavy cream. That's what they recommend for a more robust and flavorful lasagna. Also combining two different meats. Any combination of beef, veal, pork. I use 1/2 ground beef, 1/2 sweet Italian sausage. I've been making their lasagna for 10 years and its always a hit. For a quick version I'd do 2 meats and add milk or cream to your jarred red sauce. I always add more garlic and Italian seasonings to a jarred red sauce no matter what dish I'm prepping.

Our changes are reflecting prep for our baby due in the spring. DD wanted to add writing so I got EIW Level 1 and of course she wanted to start right away, so we already are several lessons in. I picked that one for price and DVD tutor. So it doesn't add to my workload with the new baby. We are also ramping up science lessons so we can finish our formal science curriculum before baby. Then we'll switch gears to some light gardening, which she can include in her personal nature study/ journal. We are also going to do some shopping for bird feeders and seed and whatever else we need to observe birds through the window while its cold out. A bird guidebook, perhaps? I don't have that totally figured out yet. I was relying on car rides for audiobook time using cds from the library but the CD player broke. So I need to shift gears and get DD some headphones. I've already set up an Overdrive account for library audiobooks and loaded the Kindle app with lots of good stuff. I will probably get an adapter for the car since we live in a small town have to drive quite a bit to get to major attractions, shopping, medical, family, etc. Gotta have something decent to listen to! Other than that, EG, HWOT, MM, SOTW are all going well and we are just going to try to not fall behind so we can take off a couple weeks when the baby comes. Thanks for this thread. I have a to-do list now that I've had to think about it. I need to get crackin!

When i clicked on this, I thought it was going to be a link to a groundbreaking new documentary. This was waaaay better!!!

i love the CHI hair straightener. i think it was around $100, if i recall. i have fine thin hair and it works for me. My sis has thicker curly hair and she uses the same straightener, so they seem pretty versatile. hth

We are doing essentials in writing level 1 for our 1st grade year here and dd loves it. It does cover writing and grammar so you would just need to add spelling and phonics (if its still needed.) It is hands off for the parent since there is a teacher giving instruction on the dvd. It took a while for dd to get the picture that she needed to listen to the dvd really well because "Mr. Stephens" is her writing teacher. She's got it now. Sorry I can't offer any suggestions for 4th grade, I'm not there yet! GL!

Yay! Mine are still little so hopefully it will be done and all the bugs worked out by the time we're ready for it. We just started EIW Level 1 this year and dd loves it!

We were also gifted a Keurig we didn't really want. I'd keep it. Hack a way to make cups reusable. If you use tap water and don't clean it, it won't last very long anyway. Ours didn't. Neither did my sister's. She loved hers and replaced it twice before finally giving up. It is nice to have for hot water for tea, instant cocoa and instant oatmeal. Also nice when ppl dropped by, I could offer them tea or coffee knowing it wouldn't add any time to their brief visit.

I would follow up for sure. This sounds exactly like what we just went through with 3yo ds. He had a cold, which led to wheezing. We did breathing treatments for 2 weeks and thought we were good. We were not. He got another cold 1 month later, turned into wheezing again. This time really bad. By the time we got to the ER, they rushed us right back and gave him a high dose of albuterol. Said we should have called the paramedics because he was in respiratory distress. A follow up with the pediatrician gave us the official asthma diagnosis and a treatment plan I feel confident about. We have emergency inhailers now so we don't get in a really scary spot again. Questions I asked the pediatrician were: what is asthma exactly? What are the side effects of a stimulant like albuterol? What are the long term side effects of the daily maintenance inhailer (flovent)? What am I really looking for when things are going south with his breathing? (Being only 3, he still can't tell me details about how he's feeling) Is there a chance he could outgrow the diagnosis? What are preventative things I can do at home? (The answers here were things like no down comforters or pillows, no open flame like candles, extensive exposure to campfires, secondhand smoke, use a humidifier in the dry winter months, etc.) I hope you get some answers. When your child isn't breathing well, its very scary!

We had a side by side and I hated it! So hard to organize food and see everything and large pizza boxes don't fit. The water/ice maker on the door never worked correctly and finally gave out altogether. We finally gave up and bought a cheep freezer on top with an ice maker but no dispensing. Next fridge I'd get a french door freezer on bottom with ice maker no door dispenser. I don't think all brands have to match.

Gotcha! Thanks!

Following. My dd is exactly like this. 6 years old, 2nd grade math and reading level, doesn't really like pretend/make believe play. Very literal. I will be looking into some of the suggestions posted here. Thanks everyone.